Smarter content, better results: the power of HubSpot Smart Content

Have you ever been personally addressed by a Web site? Have you ever visited a Web site page that felt like it was written just for you? Behind these experiences lies Smart Content.

In this blog post, you'll discover exactly what smart content means, why it can be relevant, and more importantly, how to integrate it into your strategies. In short, we'll delve into the meaning, importance and application of smart content so you can make a valuable addition to your email marketing arsenal.

What is HubSpot Smart content?

Smart content, also known as dynamic content, is website content that changes based on viewer interests or previous behavior.

By making smart use of data from your CRM, you can customize each Web page to meet the needs of each type of visitor. Imagine this: you can design your pages to provide a unique experience for your leads and a different experience for your loyal customers. The result? A website that is not only personal, but hyper-relevant to everyone who gets to see it. Sounds almost like we've stepped right into the future, right?

Smart content can be applied to different elements of your website, such as text, images and forms. For example, let's say I visit an e-commerce Web site for the first time. During this first visit, I look around, click the "like" button on a few products, and maybe buy something.

When I return a few weeks later, the home page has now changed. It now says "Welcome back!" and suggests items I might like based on my history.

Smart content allows you to implement personalization at scale, without having to manually create every variant of your content. This saves time and effort, while still providing relevant and valuable experiences to your visitors.

"Personalisation using dynamic content is the top personalisation tactic used by marketing teams."

- HubSpot Blog Research, HubSpot

Why should you use HubSpot Smart content?

Using HubSpot Smart content offers several benefits to your marketing strategy.

1. Smart content provides a hyper-personalized experience for your visitors, which can significantly increase their engagement and conversion rates. By displaying relevant content based on your visitors' specific characteristics and behaviors, you can engage and persuade them more effectively.
2. Smart content can also help optimize your SEO. By showing specific content to different audiences. You can do this by using relevant keywords, this way you can better tune your website to search intentions and rank higher in search engines.
3. Moreover, Smart content allows you to segment and personalize your marketing campaigns. You can show specific messages to different audiences based on their interests, location, purchase history and more.
   
   

Many companies put content behind a form to get new leads. While this is useful for finding new customers, it can be annoying for people who have already filled out their information before and are interested in more content. And have to leave their data again.

There are several options available within HubSpot for using Smart content. For example, you can use Smart text to create dynamic text blocks that automatically adapt to the characteristics and behaviors of your visitors.

For example: On your pricing page you can show a different price to a new visitor with the message "welcome to our community!" and offer a welcome discount. While for existing customers you can show something like "Thank you for your loyalty" and offer a loyalty discount.

In addition, you can use Smart CTAs (Call-to-Actions) to display personalised calls to action based on your visitors' interests and behavior.

For example: Imagine being able to show a different CTA to visitors who visit your website from a smartphone or a desktop. This instantly optimises the CTA for the smaller screen. Consider a price calculator that works better on a desktop and a quick form to request a quote on a mobile device.

Smart content in forms. By implementing smart content in forms, you can , for example, ask specific questions to an IT manager compared to a marketing manager. This is because the system recognizes these individuals based on information from your database. This information comes from previous website visits or is implemented in your CRM system.

Finally, HubSpot also offers the ability to set up Smart rules, which allow you to show specific content to visitors who meet certain criteria.

For example, if a customer has already made a purchase, you can automatically redirect them to an email with recommended products based on their previous purchase history.

Categories within HubSpot smart rules

There are several categories within HubSpot in which you can start using smart rules. Within HubSpot, it is possible to base smart rules on:

• Ad source: show content to viewers based on the ad they clicked on. The ad source is determined by the UTM parameters in the page URL.
• Country:display content to your viewer based on their country. The country is determined by the visitor's IP address.
• Device type: target visitors who visit your site via mobile, tablet or desktop. The smart content tools analyse the user agent of your visitor's browser to determine their device type. Since this can be changed manually on the device, accurate segmentation cannot be guaranteed.
• Referral source: show visitors smart content based on how they found your site (organic, ad,...).
• Preferred language: personalise your content based on the language set in the visitor's web browser.
• Contact list membership: show different content to visitors from different HubSpot lists. For example: a list of all people who have made a purchase within product category X in the past 90 days or a list of contacts who received a demo last month but have not yet become customers.
• Lifecycle stages: display different content based on the value of a visitor' s lifecycle stage property. Contact list membership and lifecycle stage are evaluated using cookies to associate visitors with known contacts.

• Query parameter: display content based on the query parameters in the visitor's page URL. A query parameter rule is defined by the name of the parameter and the query string value. For example, to set a rule for users with "HubSpot" in a utm_source URL parameter, enter utm_source in the first field, select "contains" in the drop-down menu and enter HubSpot in the last field.
  
  Source: (HubSpot, 2023)

Used customer case

Problem Statement

A client wanted to increase the response rate to their marketing emails. Therefore, all contacts were collected in the CRM, after which a common email was sent to schedule a follow-up sales call. However, our client noticed that this did not always get the same response.

Koho's solution

From our experience, we know that people respond faster to emails whose sender they recognise, such as their own sales representative. Using smart content, it is possible to send the same email to all contacts of each sales representative. But with that sales representative's name as the sender.

In other words, all contacts entered by Bart now receive a marketing email with a meeting link from Bart's name. All contacts entered by June now receive a personalised email from June's name. This makes the email more personal and can lead to more response.

How to implement HubSpot Smart content effectively

To effectively implement HubSpot Smart content, it is important to have a clear strategy. Start by identifying the characteristics and behaviors of your target audiences so you can create relevant segments.

Then you can use the different options (see smart rules categories) within HubSpot to show the right content to the right contact segments. Experiment with different variations and measure the results to see which approach works best.

Finally, don't stand still, but keep learning and experimenting with Smart content. With a thoughtful approach and a continuous process of testing and optimization, you can successfully implement HubSpot Smart content and take your marketing results to the next level.

Interested in implementing smart content? Don't know where to start? Consult one of our experts!